There are currently approximately 750 million passenger cars worldwide, and that number is only expected to increase. With rising fuel costs and environmental effects due to inefficient fuel consumption, an important design goal of vehicle information systems is to provide users with information about fuel economy during operation of the vehicle. Many vehicles display a measure of fuel economy, such as the gas mileage in miles per gallon. However, current systems only perform simple calculations on fuel usage and do not analyze vehicle usage patterns to detect inefficient fuel consumption patterns. Users are less likely to get information that can help them improve fuel economy from these fuel economy measures, and thus, are more likely to ignore them. Modern motor vehicles are typically equipped with a variety of onboard computers for measuring and recording vehicle performance and diagnostic data. These devices provide a large amount of information about the performance of the vehicle during operation. However, current systems fail to notify users of driving patterns that cause excess fuel consumption, and to provide incentives to users for improving vehicle fuel efficiency.